CAFO in Shelby, NE by Lauren

As we drove up to the construction site of the new mega dairy in Shelby, NE, little butterflies started doing loop-de-loops in my stomach. I have been working on environmental issues for years and have heard many horror stories of confrontation between "Big Ag" and the communities they move into. I was sure (and kind of hoping) that today would result in the mother of them all.

We parked on the side of the street to take pictures of the concentrated animal feeding operation (CAFO) with menacing clouds in the distance. I took the view in and noticed that there is a small marsh on the construction site. The guides of today's CAFO tour who have been fighting industrial farms like these for years told me that this dairy is being built on a wetland. Nebraska's Department of Environmental Quality approved it.

Next, we went to Little Bacon, a hog nursery. I opened the car door and practically gagged on the stench. All we could see was the rectangular house all the hogs are raised in. The house has windows with fans that suck the nitrogen-dense air out of the building. If those fans stopped working, the pigs inside would die quickly. That is how toxic that air is.

Just down the road from the nursery is Happy Hogs. This CAFO is set far away from the road so we could only barely see the rectangular houses tucked away behind a field of corn. Despite the distance, the smell was suffocating. I glanced around at the neighboring houses wondering how they could ever get used to this air. My guess is that they don't.

I stood there snapping pictures with the small group of factory farm fighters and waited for the CAFO owner to show his face. I was angry and I wanted to let him know it. But he never showed. We climbed back into the car and drove off without incident. I felt cheated.

As I listened to the community members' stories about fighting factory farms, I began to realize that yelling at a CAFO owner really isn't going to help things. This group of feisty citizens has to use their heads to fight Big Ag. They rally the community behind them and use local policy, zoning, and heath studies to win battles. It is slow going but I could tell they were making a difference. At the very least, they have inspired this activist to go back to the beltway and stand up to the big guy. It is an uphill battle that is made slightly easier knowing that communities across the country are standing up with me.

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